By Sarah Moomaw, News Staff
Northeastern doesn’t have a bobsled team. But as of Sunday, it has a world champion bobsledder.
Steve Langton, who graduated in 2005 with a Bachelor’s degree in business management and entrepreneurship, and sled partner Steven Holcomb raised the first-place trophy for the two-man bobsled at the 2012 World Championship in Lake Placid, N.Y. with a time of 3:42.88.
“Obviously, I’m very happy with the way things turned out,” Langton said. “Everything came together for us … Steve [Holcomb] is a very talented pilot. We worked really hard on and off the track, and being our home track, I think it meant a little bit more. We really stepped up to the plate. It couldn’t have gone any better.”
The title is the first-ever for the United States. The American team’s time was less than a second faster than that of Canadian silver medalists Lyndon Rush and Jesse Lumsden, 3:43.34.
As a student Langton was a member of the men’s track team, competing in the 100-meter dash, 50-meter dash and the long jump. Upon graduation, he went to work for land-development company owned by his father, who played football at Northeastern.
Eighteen months later, he missed competing and wanted to return to sports. At 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds, Langton said returning to track would mean he’d be about 60 pounds bigger than the competition. After competing for the Huskies, he knew succeeding in track again at his size would prove to be a challenge, so he opted to find an alternative sport.
“I wasn’t done competing. I wasn’t happy not being involved in sports,” he said. “I identified myself as an athlete my entire life. I sought to find a new outlet for my talents. As it turns out, five years later, bobsledding is a much better fit than track ever could have been … in bobsled, if you’re 100 kilos, 102 kilos, 220, 225 (pounds), that’s just what they are looking for.”
Bobsledding offered him an outlet that combine his skills from sprinting in track and his size as a break and pushman.
Taking the second seat in the two-man sled, his two responsibilities are insuring a strong start out of the gate and getting the breaks down at just the right time at the end of the run.
“I’m just there to push the sled faster than everyone else and at the end, I stop the sled,” Langton said.
Langton was invited to a US team camp in Lake Placid in September 2007 and after testing at the top of the invitees, he earned a spot on the team. He jumped into the action when the 2008 season started, sliding in every two and four-man race of the 2008 World Cup Tour. His season performance won him the title of rookie of the year.
He made the 2010 US Olympic team and competed in the two-man event, placing 10th with a time of 3:29.40.
He and his teammates are beginning to focus in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. However the official roster won’t be set until January 2014.
“Honestly, if I didn’t win a medal in 2014, I’d be really disappointed,” he said. “We have the talent. We have the support staff … As of right now, I’m on the right track. I guess you can even say that making the 2014 Olympics is a goal of mine.”
Langton is also a pushman for the four-man bobsled. He and his team, including Holcomb, will slide for another World Championship this weekend, with two runs Saturday and two runs Sunday. Medals will be awarded based the lowest combined-score Sunday at 12:50 p.m.
